MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2019) The United States and the Taliban have begun attempts to revive peace talks, which US President Donald Trump declared "dead" last month, The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources as saying.
According to the newspaper, US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad met with representatives of the Taliban in Pakistan in early October and discussed ways to resume negotiations, including exchange of prisoners.
According to sources, the representatives discussed a release of two prisoners, nationals of the US and Australia, from captivity in exchange for Anas Haqqani, a high-ranking member of the Haqqani terrorist network.
Trump announced the cancellation of the talks in late September after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack which killed, among others, one US soldier. The initial draft deal proposed to gradually reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan from about 13,000 to 5,000.
The US State Department did not give any comments on the matter.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terror attacks, and toppled then-ruling Taliban shortly thereafter. It is the longest war in US history and by some estimates has cost nearly $1 trillion.
